Drafters of a new international agreement on trade in tropical timber completed a second session in Geneva last week, making progress on the text but deciding to meet again in June to finalize the draft.
The UN Conference for the Negotiation of a Successor Agreement to the International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994, adopted on 18 February a resolution requesting the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, in cooperation with the Executive Director of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), to prepare the text resulting from last week´s negotiations for its third session, which will be held in Geneva from 27 June to 1 July.
Carlos Antonio da Rocha Paranhos (Brazil), President of the Conference, said in a closing statement that while good progress had been made, there were several remaining issues to be negotiated, including a proposed shift in the allocation of votes and financial contributions between producer and consumer countries and whether some of the voluntary contributions to the Organization´s budget should become mandatory. The agreement should also achieve the right balance between environmental and commercial concerns.
UNCTAD convened the conference on behalf of the UN Secretary-General from 14 to 18 February. The first part of the conference took place from 26 to 30 July last year.
The representatives of 59 countries and the European Community who attended the conference also called on UNCTAD and the ITTO to "maintain appropriate contacts with producing and consuming countries with a view to assisting the conference in achieving a successful conclusion". (For background, see UNCTAD/PRESS/PR/2005/008).
